1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a garment hanger and more particularly to a garment hanger device which will adequately maintain a garment designed for the upper body such as shirts, blouses, sweaters, jackets, etc. as well as garments designed for the lower body such as pants, skirts, etc., in a secure position on the hanger and in a wrinkle free environment.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of garment hanger designs are known for hanging garments where the conventional practice is to place a single garment on a hanger. However, many garments are designed to be worn, stored and sold as coordinated outfits or sets. For example, a coordinate jacket and pant set, a coordinate skirt and blouse set, and other such coordinate combinations may be specifically manufactured to be worn, stored and sold as sets. Accordingly, it is desirable to arrange these garments together to convey that the garments are indeed a set to be worn together. Additionally, there are numerous drawbacks to placing a single garment on a hanger such as the number of hangers required for a wardrobe can become excessive, yet the space available in a closet may be scarce thereby prohibiting a large number of hangers.
Further, when the garments on separate hangers are handled together, it is often difficult to place the hanger hooks over a closet rail, which frequently results in dropping and or damage to the garments.
Hangers which are capable of supporting two or more garments, such as a top and pants combination, on a single hanger have a fixed hook portion which restricts the freedom of movement of the garments with respect to the hook, resulting in an increased likelihood of wrinkles being imparted into the garments. This occurrence is exacerbated when a plurality garments are placed on standard hanger designs and stacked or layered, for example in a travel garment bag. In such applications, the rigid hook design forces the portion of the hanger which supports the garments to be displaced, such that each successive hanger is displaced or deflected a greater distance than the preceding hanger. Consequently, the garments are often displaced in response the deflection of the hanger, resulting in wrinkles being formed or the garment being forced off of the hanger entirely.
There thus remains a need for an efficient and economic hanger device which provides an articulated or pivotable hook design in order to overcome the disadvantages of conventional hanger designs.